New Last Names
by Ad Astra Per Alia Porci
Summary: NS Oneshot. RE: Sandle challenge. Sara, Warrick, Greg, Nick and ... is that Hodges? The group talking and goofing off during their breaks. Please R&R.


A/N: This is a response to a challenge from Forensicsfan. It's longer than anticipated because I had no idea how to end it, lol. Sorry if it sucks (let me know if it does), but I'd like to try my hand at a few more one-shots.  
On another note, I have about four other Snicker stories in the works right now, two of which I'm probably going to finish soon, and in my opinion they're lookin' pretty good. So while I'm not sure how crazy I am about this story, stay with me. I promise I have more up my sleeve. Please review 'cause I'm nervous about this one; if you hate it, definately tell me so I'll learn to stay away from the one-shots. Thanks for your time.

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"I don't see what you guys have against it. It's actually kind of…" Sara paused as she searched for the proper adjective. "…sweet," she finally decided on. Warrick folded down a corner of the tabloid he had borrowed from Greg, _The Weekly World News_, and glanced across the break-room table at Sara skeptically. "What? I think it's nice." 

"I don't really care either way," Greg shrugged. "If they want to make up a new name, more power to them."

"You just don't want to get on Sidle's bad side," Hodges muttered as he passed Greg and pulled out a seat next to Warrick. The three of them started at Hodges mystified. "Oh, what? I'm not allowed a break?" he glowered at his colleagues. "I'm not a machine, you know!" Each CSI gave a hand gesture or facial expression to show that they were backing off.

Greg returned to the subject at hand, "Now, I'm not saying that _I'd_ do it; I just don't see anything wrong with the fact that _they_ did."

"Yea, call me a traditionalist, but I think the woman should take the guy's name. It's a point of honour," Warrick smiled proudly as he thought of Mrs. Brown sitting at home waiting for him. He noticed someone enter the room and looked over Sara's shoulder. Nick walked in. "Hey man," he gave his friend a nod of acknowledgement and then returned his eyes to the paper in his hands. The others gave Nick a brief greeting and returned to their discussion.

Hodges nodded his head in agreement, "I agree with Brown. I think it's dumb."

"What're y'all talking about?" Nick broke in as he poured himself some coffee.

Sara had opened her mouth to reply but Greg beat her to it, "Your latest haircut."

Nick stopped pouring and absently ran a hand across his forehead to brush his bangs aside farther. He looked back over at Greg and noticed the amused smirk on the young man's face. "Funny," Nick spoke sarcastically as he claimed a seat at the head of the table between Sara and Warrick.

"Ignore him, Nick; your hair is cute. The whole hockey-hair thing is in right now," she winked at him and ruffled the bangs he had swept aside a moment ago, earning a grin in return. "We're discussing the merits of a woman taking her man's name when they get married."

Nick had been blowing into his cup to cool it down and coughed a bit at her answer, "Oh… what brought this on?"

"Our case," Warrick explained without looking up, "The victims' last name didn't match any other members of their family. Sara thought the husband might have been adopted, so she asked his dad about it and found out that the name had been a sort of compromise between the husband and wife. The wife didn't want to take the guy's last name, and he didn't want her keeping her own, so they mixed them together to come up with a whole new one." He flipped to a new page.

"Like an anagram?" Nick asked.

"Kind of. They didn't actually use all the letters though; just enough to blend the two surnames together and make a new coherent one," Sara replied.

"So what do you think, Nick? Wouldn't you rather your woman take your last name?" Warrick surveyed, putting his paper down once more.

"If we're talking preference, then yeah, I'd much rather her take my name. However, if she really didn't want to what can I do? The most important thing is that she's agreed to marry me, I don't really care what name it says on her mail." Nick glanced over at Sara to see if his answer met her approval. He was satisfied when he found a small smile playing at his lips.

"Wow," Hodges scoffed, "I thought for sure you would have had your heart set on a 'Mrs. Stokes.' You just give off all those old school, southern gentleman morals. I figured this would be one of them."

"You're just bitter I'm not on your side," Nick laughed. "What're you doin' in here anyway, Hodges?" It appeared that Nick only just noticed the man's presence.

Hodges crossed his arms in defiance. "You know, contrary to popular belief, us lab techs are allowed a break now and then too," he huffed.

"Relax, man. I didn't mean it that way." Nick held his arms up in surrender, "I just meant that you normally don't socialize with us. You usually take your breaks when we're out in the field."

"Well, sometimes it's unavoidable," he shrugged and sipped his coffee, looking a little awkward about his last reaction. "This is the only break room that I know of so if you guys insist on hanging around in here, there's not much I can do to avoid you."

"Anyway, Nick," Greg interrupted, "Back to this name thing: you'd really just let some chick make up a new last name for you?"

Sara broke in sounding annoyed, "Not '_some chick_', Greggo, his future-wife."

"Whatever," he mumbled in return. "So, Stokes? You up for a new name?"

"Actually… no," he replied after some hesitance.

Sara whirled on him, "I can believe you're switching to their side!"

"I'm not switching sides," he defended. "It's just that I like Stokes. This whole scenario was brought up because the lady didn't really want to give up her last name … well, I don't want to lose mine either. I'm not going to make my wife change her name against her will, so I hope that she'll show me the same courtesy." He explained a little timidly. Sara tinged pink, embarrassed that she had jumped all over him for such a simple, and hypothetical, request. However, her shy and embarrassed smile was short-lived as Warrick began to speak.

"Sara, the name is supposed to announce to the world that the woman is taken" Warrick said with a wicked grin. "I absolutely love that every time Tina's doctor ex-boyfriend has to page her or work with her or even look at her name tag he's reminded that she belongs to me now."

"You know, men aren't the dominant partner anymore; we've moved from a patriarchial society to an egalitarian one." Sara sounded annoyed as she spoke, "Maybe you guys just need to catch up with the times."

"Hey, I'm as modern as they come," Greg defended, standing up and pulling out some gadgets from his pocket. "Check this out: palm pilot, I-Pod, cell phone." He tossed the items on the table in front of Sara, she took a special interest in his cell. "Brand new," he supplied with a tinge of pride, "Just got it two days ago. Pretty sexy, huh?"

Sara laughed as Greg waggled his eye brows. "Well, as far as cell phones go…"

"And listen to this," he plucked the phone from Sara's hands and fiddled with the buttons. The room was filled with an electronic melody that sounded vaguely familiar. Nick and Warrick laughed as Greg began dancing to the horrible sound; Hodges rolled his eyes and stared at his coffee shaking his head. Sara's face was screwed up in concentration as she tried to decipher what song was playing, but the answer was provided within seconds when Greg began to sing along as well. "_A few times I've been 'round that track so it's not goin' to just happen like that. 'Cause I ain't no holla back girl! I ain't no holla back girl!_"

"Sanders, you're ruining the name of CSIs everywh--" Hodges trailed off as Nick jumped up from his seat and started flailing around with only a tad more grace than Greg.

"_A few times I've been 'round that track so it's not goin' to just happen like that. 'Cause I ain't no holla back girl! I ain't no holla back girl!_" Nick's twang joined Greg's rendition of Gwen Steffani's song.

Warrick added his own voice to the mix, but his contribution was only more laughter. "I don't think Greg is doing any more damage than the rest of us," Warrick smirked at Hodges. Greg's cell phone only played the chorus repeatedly but since the boys only knew those words it didn't bother them any.

"Com'on Sar," Nick glided over to her seat and pulled it back. Giggling, Sara just shook her head no. "Either you get up and dance, or the dance comes down to you," he winked as he twirled around to end up directly in front of her. He gave her until the chorus started once more and then, since she didn't get up, he began swaying more suggestively and made it clear that she would be receiving a lap dance any minute. Her face burned bright red and she quickly gave Nick her hand to show she would join him. With a big grin on his face, he pulled her to her feet and started swinging her around to the pathetic electronic tune and Greg's off-key singing. She was giggling madly as Nick pushed her away so he could pull her spinning back into his arms. Sara ended up with her and Nick's arms all wrapped around her torso as they danced back to front.

"Your levels of maturity never cease to amaze me," Hodges sneered at the dancing trio. Greg spun around and "accidentally" flung a pen at him. In a huff, Hodges got up and left the room. Greg, Nick and Sara continued dancing and horsing around as Warrick picked up the tabloid and resumed reading, an article about finding a centaur's skeleton caught his eye.

Not two minutes later a loud double beep erupted from Greg's new cell. "Oooo, historic moment: the first call to my new cell." He smiled broadly and walked a few feet away to answer it in his most professional voice, "Greg Sanders."

Since their music was now gone, Nick twirled Sara one last time so that their arms were untangled and then they made their way back to their seats laughing and slightly out of breath. They unconsciously sat a little closer together this time. Sara had just opened her mouth to comment on Nick's moves when Greg's annoyed voice came across the room. "Clever, Hodges," Greg closed the phone with an angry click. He was just returned to his seat in a huff just as Hodges strolled back into the room with a triumphant smirk on his face. "Aren't we a little old for prank phone calls?" Greg spat at the man, "How'd you get my number anyway?" He didn't get an answer to either question so he just continued grumbling, "I can't believe the only person to call my cell so far is _him_."

"I'll call you Greg, what's the number?" Sara offered.

"Ha!" Hodges mocked, "A pity call!"

Greg ignored him. "Thanks, Sar," the twinkle returned to Greg's eyes. "And just so you know, you can call me anytime," he gave a cheesy smile as he relayed off his phone number to her. She rolled her eyes as she entered the number into her contact list but called him after anyway. As _Holla Back Girl_ began playing again Greg's smile broadened. "Hello?" he asked seductively as he flipped the phone open once more.

"That line was weak. You need new material or else I'll be the only girl to ever call this cell," she leaned back in her chair so that she could look at him next to her as they spoke.

"You're all I need, Sara" he winked.

She laughed and hung up on him. "I don't want to waste my minutes," she explained as his face fell into a pout.

"I've changed my mind," Greg suddenly announced to the table, causing Nick to look up from the article he had started reading over Warrick's shoulder.

"At least wait until she's out of the room before you take that back, man. You'll hurt her feelings," Nick smiled as Sara punched his arm lightly.

"Nah, not about that; about the last name thing. I'd gladly trade Sanders for a sandal any day," he attempted to resume their flirting. Four sets of puzzled eyes focused on him. "Sandle. Get it? Sanders and Sidle mixed together?" A collective "ohh" of understanding sounded from the group.

"That's sweet Greg, b--" she smiled at him.

"But I think someone already _Stole_ her heart," Nick finished with a cheeky grin. Warrick caught something in his tone and glanced up. As he noticed the grin, he put two and two together. He folded the tabloid and stared in disbelief at his friends. Hodges had also picked up the emphasis on 'stole' and cocked his head at the pair.

"I know, but if you'll just hear me out… Sandal sounds so much cooler than, uh, Gristle," Greg threw her and Grissom's names together, then laughed at the outcome.

"I don't think they meant Grissom." Hodges stated. "_Stole_, Greg," he repeated the emphasis. "Like Stokes but with a different ending…"

"What are yo—Ohmygod!" Greg whipped his head back towards Nick and Sara and noticed that Nick had thrown an arm around her, both wearing sheepish expressions. "Are you-- Whe-- How did I not notice!"

"Uh, what exactly are you announcing here?" Warrick asked cautiously, before he jumped on the name combination.

"That Sara, or I guess now both of us, will be getting a new last name," Nick beamed as he announced their engagement to their friends. Sara scooted her chair a little closer to him and entwined her left hand with the one he had slung over her shoulder, displaying the simple yet absolutely stunning ring resting on her finger.

"Just me," Sara assured, "I'm going to be Mrs. Sara Stokes." Nick leaned over and kissed the side of her forehead in thanks.  
"Well, congrats guys!" Warrick smiled and got up to trade a manly hug (brief body contact and lots of thumps on the back) with Nick and gave Sara a gentler embrace and a kiss on the cheek.  
Greg's mouth opened and closed a few times but couldn't manage to get words out. Eventually he just stood up and followed Warrick's lead with the embraces, though his were more dazed than Warrick's had been. He simply nodded to convey his congratulations and then returned to his seat.

"I thought you didn't want to belong to anyone Sidle," Hodges reminded them he was still in the room.

"Hodg--" Nick had a warning tone in his voice but Sara cut it off.

"This isn't to announce that I belong to someone; this is to announce to the world that Nick belongs _with_ me," she answered sweetly.

"So no Stoles then, huh?" Hodges sounded a little disappointed. "I think you should; it'd have a fun irony to it… a pair of CSIs named Stole? It's like a dentist named Dr. Sugar or reverend named Rev. Sin."

"No thanks," Sara said firmly, although in the back of her mind she admitted he had a good point. "I'll stick with Stokes." Nick beamed down at her and fiddled with the ring on her finger; he loved the feel of it because it reminded him that she had said yes. Sara smiled back at him lovingly and gave her man a kiss because… well, just because she could.

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A/N: I reposted it to fix Greg's last name. Sorry I got it wrong the first time 'round guys. I have a friend named Saunders and I typed it without even thinking. 


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